Obviously

With Barb, and everybody else, being none the wiser that the newest resident of Halcyon had nearly flown the coop I am moved back into my room and ready to go shopping within the hour. I help Barb into my car, wincing in sympathy at the obvious pain my boss tried to hide. From what I could tell nothing was actually seriously wrong with her, she seemed as healthy as a horse, but a combination of weight, age, arthritis and probably some sort of nerve thing like sciatica made it so that her mobility and comfort was not what it could be.

It wasn’t lost on me that had I continued to run Barb would have been left high and dry for this big grocery trip and she would have been forced to go back to doing everything around here herself like before I arrived. This ‘backward step’ was a glimpse at the ripples I would have left in my wake. It made me wonder about the waves my passing through had caused in the other towns and cities I’d moved on from, those dozen and a half aborted lives I had started and abandoned. As I walk around to the driver’s side I look across to the gas station and think about Terry’s invitation to come practice with the baseball team. He would have been left looking like a fool as he showed up alone and had to explain the center fielder he’d vouched for had disappeared without a word. Being forced to think about the potential consequences of my attempted retreat was…unpleasant.

Putting that out of my mind I drive us the couple of minutes it took to get to the local grocery and park as near to the door as I could as I knew we’d have a serious load coming out of here. We hadn’t gotten ten feet from my car when Barb spots a friend of hers, another elderly woman named Gwen, and veers off to waddle that direction. I follow along. The pair exchange the usual small town pleasantries before the woman’s eyes fall onto me.

“And who is this?” She asks in that way that belied that she knew exactly who I was but didn’t want to admit she heard it through the gossip network.

“This is my boy, Dusty.” Barb pats my arm. “He’s helping me out at the motel.”

“Barb!” I say, leaning into my Southern drawl. “Who is THIS sexy young filly?” I put my arms around them both. “A man’s spoiled for choice in this town!”

Gwen giggles as Barb laughs and rolls her eyes. Slapping my belly she says. “Careful. This one’s got a silver tongue. Real hard worker though.” Leaning closer to Gwen she says. “We’re telling folks he’s Earl’s cousin so I can pay him under the table.”

I bite my lips to stop from laughing. If this is how Barb’s been talking about me it would be a miracle if the sheriff didn’t already know about the ruse. “Nice to meet ya, Ma’am.”

“So much for sexy young filly.” Gwen titters. “It was nice while it lasted.”

“I gotta behave in front of the boss.” I shoot her a wink.

“I suppose there’s a first time for everything.” Barb quips as the three of us share a laugh.

“Welcome to Halcyon, Dusty.” Gwen says.

“Thank ya, Ma’am.”

Making it clear that she might be here for awhile Barb waves me off toward the store. “You go look around for awhile.” Pulling a fifty from her purse she passes it to me. “Here’s for the day. Go shop for yourself for a bit. I’ll be in soon.”

Feeling like a kid who had just gotten his allowance early I kiss her head. “Thanks, Barb.”

I head inside, leaving Barb to catch up on all the latest scuttlebutt.

The grocery store was not what I’d expected. It was bright and modern with gleaming floors and eye-catching displays. It wasn’t anything unusual by the standards of most towns but it was the first bit of Halcyon I’d been to that felt like it had escaped the last century. While not expansive it had everything you could ever want and a little bit more. I was browsing the shampoo section when out of the corner of my eye I catch a flash of green flit by. There is the squeak of sneakers on tile as the person screeched to a stop and returned to the end of the aisle. I turn my head to see a woman, one of the employees, with straight and frizzy straw colored hair standing ten feet away and staring right at me. She was…not conventionally attractive. Her nose, lips and teeth were too big, her eyes and chin too small and the rest of her was as scrawny as a scare crow. Her chest as flat as a plank and hips as straight as a South Dakota highway she had a figure that could be drawn with a ruler. But her face was kind and her smile easy.

“Hey.” I give her a polite nod.

“Hey yourself.” Thrusting out her hand she marches up to me. I turn and take her hand and she begins pumping it up and down. “I’m Marigold. Some folks call me Mary, some folks call me Goldie, but it’s Marigold on my birth certificate. And you are Dusty. I recognized you from the hair.”

Marigold? Marigold! Mei’s friend!

“Oh, hey.” I smile back as we shake hands far longer than usual. “I think I remember hearing about you.” I forgo mentioning that what I’d heard was that she was the town weirdo.

“I’ve definitely heard about you.” She finally stops shaking my hand and plants her fists on her hips as she looks me up and down. “So you’re Dusty. Huh!” After a moment she says. “Thought you’d be shorter. Or taller. One of the two.”

“You’ve heard of me?” I say, bursting with curiosity.

“Yep! Heard you were a nosy, annoying, fast-talking, blundering dimwit with the world’s most boring car.”

“Oh.” My smile falls.

“And those were the good parts.”

“I’d hate to hear the bad.” I mutter.

Oblivious to the effect her words had on me she says. “I’m Mei’s friend by the way.”

“Ohhh.” I say, pretending I didn’t already know that. “The antique dealer.”

“Pfff! Obviously!” She says with a snorting laugh. “I’m her BEST friend actually.”

“I see. Nice to meet you, Marigold.”

“Yeah.” She nods, grinning from ear to ear as she just…stands there.

“So…she mentioned me?”

“Only a lot.” Marigold guffaws. “Obviously!”

“Oh?” I say, mood ticking back up again.

“Mei HATES you!”

“Oh.” My mood plummets once more.

She pats my shoulder far too cordially for someone I just met. “She hates everyone. Don’t take it personal, Dusty.” After a pause she adds. “Though she REALLY hates you.”

“Great.”

“So what are you doin here?” She one hand on her hip she stands sort of nodding like someone trying too hard to act natural. Despite the awkwardness I got the sense that this was natural for her.

I nod toward the shampoo. “Shopping.”

“HAH!” She snorts. “Obviously. Lookin at shampoos, huh?”

“Yep.”

Pulling a dark green bottle of shampoo from the shelf she puts it into my cart. “You’ll like this one.”

“Uh…thanks.” I say pulling it out again and putting it back on the shelf. “I’ll think about it.”

She gives me that look of somebody trying to explain something to a simpleton. Taking the shampoo from the shelf she puts it back in my cart. “You’re not listening. You’ll like this one.”

“I’m sure I will but…”

She lets out an exasperated sigh. “Dusty! Didn’t you hear me? She HATES you! Like… a lot!”

“Mei?”

“YES!” She throws her arms up, the volume of her exclamation turning heads. “You are a dimwit, aren’t you?”

Slowly my baffled brain starts to put the pieces together. I pick up the bottle and give it a look. “Tea tree and cedar?”

“Classy. Mature.” She says. “Think dark forests, not sunny beaches.”

“I see.” I say as I look up from the bottle. “So…she hates this?”

“Oh no, she’d love it.” She waggles her pencil thin brows up and down suggestively.

“But she hates me?”

“Despises you.”

“And that’s…good?”

Marigold’s face lights up with another toothy grin. “Obviously!”